If there be four
or five hard-to-explain verses in the entire New Testament, these two verses would
have to be counted among them. Here Jesus told people that He came to the earth
for a specific reason: to cast fire upon the earth. What is meant by fire here?
The fire in view here is not what is related to combustible matter such as firewood.
What Jesus had in mind is a fire not of the world; so where would that fire come
from? It would come from heaven. Does not the book of Hebrews tell us that God himself
is a consuming fire? (12:29) Moreover , in many places
of the Bible fire is shown to stand for God’s life, for we know that the life
of God is righteous and holy as fire.
Hence, we may conclude from the initial words of Jesus
recorded in these two verses of Luke 12 that the purpose in Jesus coming to the
world was to cast God’s fire upon the earth so that people might receive the
life of God that was in Him. At the time of His speaking, however, people had
yet to receive God’s life. So He next said, “What do I desire, what is my wish?
Oh, would that it were already kindled.” This conveys
the thought that He wished people could have God’s life that very day, but regrettably
they could not. Why was that so? Jesus’ next words provide the answer: “I have
a baptism [yet] to be baptized with.” In other words, the fire could not be kindled
because Jesus had not yet been baptized.
Is it not strange that at this point in Luke’s Gospel
narrative—chapter 12—Jesus is recorded as indicating He had not yet been
baptized? But Luke chapter 3 clearly tells us that He was indeed baptized. How
do we explain this apparent contradiction? In both Romans 6:3 ff. and
Colossians 2:12, we are told that the baptism referenced here by Jesus points
to His death and not to His water baptism. So when Jesus said He had not been
baptized yet, He meant that He himself was yet to die, and that what His
baptismal death on the cross was to accomplish still remained to be realized.
What must this baptism accomplish,
and why? Let us suppose that you are to perform a certain work; what will you
do? You will work till its purpose is accomplished. Similarly, Jesus’ death is
to accomplish God’s purpose of giving His uncreated life to people. Since Jesus
had yet to die, the fire of God’s released life could not be kindled till after
His death.
So these two verses in Luke 12 tell us that Jesus came to
cast God’s fire upon the earth that men might have His life in Christ. Before He
died people did not have that life. Only after His death could people receive
it. In other words, before Jesus died God’s eternal life could not be released
and therefore people could not possess it. Why only after His death could people
receive God’s life? This is explained in what Jesus next declared: “How I am
straitened, constricted, and pressed in.” Why was He in this condition? The man
Jesus had the original life of God within Him, and it was like a seething fire
ever seeking to erupt and be spread abroad. That life fills the universe and is
normally not limited by time and space. God’s life is omnipresent and
omnipotent. At any time and in any place there is His life. And here in Jesus’
words that life is likened to fire. And an unobstructed fire, we know, quickly spreads
and nothing and no one can contain it.
Although Jesus as the Son of God is equal with God, He
came to earth to be man. Nevertheless, this boundless divine life was shut up—restricted
and compressed—within the flesh of the Son of man. And thus this unbounded life
of God was now checked, controlled and restrained by time and space. It could
not be everywhere simultaneously. Indeed, if Jesus, the vessel on earth of
God’s uncreated life, was in Caesarea Philippi, then that life bound up within
the flesh of the Son of man could not be in Bethesda at the same moment. This
flesh containing the life of God might have been in Galilee yesterday and might
today be in Judea,
or five hard-to-explain verses in the entire New Testament, these two verses would
have to be counted among them. Here Jesus told people that He came to the earth
for a specific reason: to cast fire upon the earth. What is meant by fire here?
The fire in view here is not what is related to combustible matter such as firewood.
What Jesus had in mind is a fire not of the world; so where would that fire come
from? It would come from heaven. Does not the book of Hebrews tell us that God himself
is a consuming fire? (12:29) Moreover , in many places
of the Bible fire is shown to stand for God’s life, for we know that the life
of God is righteous and holy as fire.
Hence, we may conclude from the initial words of Jesus
recorded in these two verses of Luke 12 that the purpose in Jesus coming to the
world was to cast God’s fire upon the earth so that people might receive the
life of God that was in Him. At the time of His speaking, however, people had
yet to receive God’s life. So He next said, “What do I desire, what is my wish?
Oh, would that it were already kindled.” This conveys
the thought that He wished people could have God’s life that very day, but regrettably
they could not. Why was that so? Jesus’ next words provide the answer: “I have
a baptism [yet] to be baptized with.” In other words, the fire could not be kindled
because Jesus had not yet been baptized.
Is it not strange that at this point in Luke’s Gospel
narrative—chapter 12—Jesus is recorded as indicating He had not yet been
baptized? But Luke chapter 3 clearly tells us that He was indeed baptized. How
do we explain this apparent contradiction? In both Romans 6:3 ff. and
Colossians 2:12, we are told that the baptism referenced here by Jesus points
to His death and not to His water baptism. So when Jesus said He had not been
baptized yet, He meant that He himself was yet to die, and that what His
baptismal death on the cross was to accomplish still remained to be realized.
What must this baptism accomplish,
and why? Let us suppose that you are to perform a certain work; what will you
do? You will work till its purpose is accomplished. Similarly, Jesus’ death is
to accomplish God’s purpose of giving His uncreated life to people. Since Jesus
had yet to die, the fire of God’s released life could not be kindled till after
His death.
So these two verses in Luke 12 tell us that Jesus came to
cast God’s fire upon the earth that men might have His life in Christ. Before He
died people did not have that life. Only after His death could people receive
it. In other words, before Jesus died God’s eternal life could not be released
and therefore people could not possess it. Why only after His death could people
receive God’s life? This is explained in what Jesus next declared: “How I am
straitened, constricted, and pressed in.” Why was He in this condition? The man
Jesus had the original life of God within Him, and it was like a seething fire
ever seeking to erupt and be spread abroad. That life fills the universe and is
normally not limited by time and space. God’s life is omnipresent and
omnipotent. At any time and in any place there is His life. And here in Jesus’
words that life is likened to fire. And an unobstructed fire, we know, quickly spreads
and nothing and no one can contain it.
Although Jesus as the Son of God is equal with God, He
came to earth to be man. Nevertheless, this boundless divine life was shut up—restricted
and compressed—within the flesh of the Son of man. And thus this unbounded life
of God was now checked, controlled and restrained by time and space. It could
not be everywhere simultaneously. Indeed, if Jesus, the vessel on earth of
God’s uncreated life, was in Caesarea Philippi, then that life bound up within
the flesh of the Son of man could not be in Bethesda at the same moment. This
flesh containing the life of God might have been in Galilee yesterday and might
today be in Judea,
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